I have been working with limbsaver/mr eastman, and been doing a lot of testing of how to make a quieter crossbows,and have been invited my him to visit there lab, so far the best sound reduction has come from the stocks themselfs,The hollow plastic stocks make a lot of noise by placing material like the tenticle wrap inside hollow places inside stock, it help a lot also by placing a limbsaver inside of stock by removing butt plate it help a lot both is better, even the front handle of a horton by placing a small limbsaver in the small hollows you can see when you remove with 2 screws helps a lot, if your money is tight i suggest get a tenticle wrap from limbsaver and use inside all hollow places you can access inside of crossbow stock.it is well worth the effort and investment.even if money is tight just get the tenticle wrap and cut it up and stuff in all hollows of the stock you will be very happy of the results..

When you say quiet crossbow,compared to what?.
I have never seen or shot a crossbow that I would call quiet.Are you able to check in the lab for how much sound is actually reduced.
After all the anti sound work you describe how much sound have you lost in decibels?

My old Bear Whitetail II was a very noisy bow. I was able to apply all the silencing equipment available at the time and reduce the noise considerably. To compare my horton to my bear is like comparing a crying baby to a rock concert. It is LOUD! I don't think I will ever be able to silence my EXP to my expectations. And it has no hollow areas to speak of. If I made it as quiet as possible I can still imagine a deer twitching or ducking the shot. I plan on limiting myself to 25 yards or less before I pull the trigger. I am going to stick to this plan on the first few deer I take with it just to see how they react. If the flinching isn't that severe then I'll look out at the 40 yard shots.

I've played with string leeches, beaver balls, felt pads, limb savers, etc on three different X bows. My current project does not have a hollow stock and it's the loudest. And the fastest. I'm thinking that there's no such thing as a quiet crossbow. Yes' you can make them quieter by slowing the string with a heavier arrow or string "silencers" but it's not going to make it anywhere as quite as most verts.
So, I'm going in the other direction: more speed. If a deer can jump the string on an arrow leaving my bow at 350 fps, more power to him. I'm planning on getting only one shot with a crossbow, so bow noise is virtually irrelevant.

If it's the Hollow areas in a crossbow that make excess noise then wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to use some expanding foam, similar to the stuff that is use in boats and other water craft. I'd have thought that that would fill up the areas quite nicely and it certainly won't add anything to the weight.

First time i shot my phoenix i thought an explosion had occurred but found out that it was the nature of x-bows. So I started wearing ear plugs while shooting it in my basement and outside. I then bought a STS for it and a Boo string w/ cat whiskers. It "silenced" it to the point that I no longer wear ear plugs while shooting it. It is now more comfortable to shoot but it is by no means quiet. I am using the easton firebolts which are about the lightest arrow that xcal allows as i want my arrow to get there as quickly as possible.

I've played with string leeches, beaver balls, felt pads, limb savers, etc on three different X bows. My current project does not have a hollow stock and it's the loudest. And the fastest. I'm thinking that there's no such thing as a quiet crossbow. Yes' you can make them quieter by slowing the string with a heavier arrow or string "silencers" but it's not going to make it anywhere as quite as most verts.So, I'm going in the other direction: more speed. If a deer can jump the string on an arrow leaving my bow at 350 fps, more power to him. I'm planning on getting only one shot with a crossbow, so bow noise is virtually irrelevant.